Russian Media Sites Hit by Cyber Attacks

Arbor Networks reports that botnets have been targeting several sites belonging to the Russian newspaper Ufa Journal.

Posted February 17, 2012

Share

Hackers recently targeted several Russian media sites with DDoS attacks in advance of the country's March 4 presidential election.

"Researchers monitoring DDoS attacks across the Internet said Wednesday that a variety of different botnets had begun targeting several sites belonging to Ufa Journal, a Russian newspaper, as well as a separate media site and one site owned by a political candidate," writes Threatpost's Dennis Fisher.

"'Inspection of our botnet tracking logs from Project Bladerunner show multiple sites under attack recently that appear to be politically motivated. Four are news sites (three belong to journalufa). The other is a candidates site, and all attacks are ongoing. The botnets here are Dirt Jumper and Black Energy. Despite press that the radio station Echo Moscow is getting political pressure for its pro-change reporting, we haven’t yet seen their properties struck by attacks as we have in the past,' Jose Nazario of Arbor Networks wrote in a blog post on the attacks," Fisher writes.